Learning in the Black Belt: Examining Southern Rurality Through Black Geographies

• In Event: Making Sense of Global Ruralities for Educational Research and Practice

Abstract

In this paper, we pull in concepts about place and race from Black Geography to posit earnest questions about the antiblackness of schooling and educational theories that widely accept rural as racialized white. We contextualize this work within the American Southern Black Belt (see Dantes, 2021; Rankin, 1992). We introduce tools from Black Geography (McKittrick, 2006) as a means for better conceptualizing the nuances and particularities of education along the American Southern Black Belt. In conclusion, we offer several propositions for the ways that educational researchers may apply tools and concepts from Black Geography as a means of better understanding racialized disparities in education in the plantation South.

Authors

• Joy Howard, Western Carolina University
  Presenting Author

• Timberly L. Baker, Arkansas State University
  Presenting Author